Member Survey Results

We asked our members - adults and parents of youth students - to take a brief survey to close out 2017, and we'd like to share some of the results!

Participation56% of our adult students and 68% of our youth families completed the survey. December is a busy time of year for most people, so we are very grateful for everyone who took the time to share their opinions.

More No-GiThe majority of respondents (89% of adults and 100% of parents representing youth students) are happy with our class times and structure/content. We asked the adults if they would be more likely to attend No-Gi classes if they were moved from Friday to some other day. Only one respondent said he did not like No-Gi, while 28% requested a scheduling change and the rest stated that they enjoy attending No-Gi classes on Fridays. However, there were enough requests for more No-Gi training that we decided to add a No-Gi competition class. It will replace the Tuesday evening Gi session, from 6:00 to 8:00, starting January 9th. The Friday No-Gi class will remain unchanged.

Assistant InstructorsOur youth program has grown tremendously over the past six months. When we asked parents whether our youth classes should be separated into age groups, we received mixed responses, with good reasoning on either side. The arguments for having separate classes are...

Older kids are often too big to roll with smaller kids.

The older kids would be challenged more in a separate class.

The larger classes are more difficult for the instructor to manage.

The arguments against having separate classes are...

The older kids are able to help the younger kids.

Some families have kids of different ages.

Splitting the classes would lead to parents having less options as to when their child(ren) could train.

The instructor is able to effectively manage kids of all ages in one class.

We also received a suggestion to split classes in terms of competitive vs. non-competitive youth students, which we have already implemented. In addition, we have decided to add an assistant instructor for Saturday youth classes (our most popular day), effective immediately. This will ease the burden of coaching a big group as well as allow for more attention for each student. Students will continue to be paired up by size, and we will continue to integrate older/bigger kids into the adult class, as they are ready. We will continue to ask for feedback in order to improve our youth class.

Zen PlannerLess then half of respondents stated that they log into their Zen Planner accounts regularly, while more than half said they would log in more if they knew what they could do with it. As a result, I have put together a "how-to" document for Zen Planner that will soon be available to all members.

Other FeedbackAll other feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We will continue to review the suggestions offered to us as we make our academy even better!